NEW YORK — New York City’s tradition of stacking garbage bags on the sidewalk for collection is going the way of the dinosaur.
Starting Friday, all 200,000 businesses in the Big Apple will be required to dispose of their trash bags in trash bins, as communities across the country and around the world have long done.
The requirement is the next phase in the city’s efforts to curb what Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has called a “24-hour rat buffet” of trash on sidewalks.
The city began requiring restaurants, convenience stores and bars to use a sturdy trash can with a secure lid in August and expanded the requirement for chain stores the following month.
Now every city business, including mom-and-pop stores, must comply. In the fall, residential buildings with nine or fewer units will be covered by the mandate.
Commercial waste makes up nearly half of the roughly 100 million pounds of trash collected by the city each day, said Adams, who has made rodent control a focus in the city.
City officials will issue warnings for the first month of the new mandate but will begin issuing citations in April, Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Friday morning during media appearances with Adams.
Joshua Goodman, a spokesman for the city’s sanitation department, said the city’s only requirement for businesses is to use a sturdy trash bin with a secure lid.
Businesses should work with their waste hauler to find out what type of bin to use because business waste is collected by private haulers and not by the city.